1994–98 Toyota Supra Turbo

Most Fun for $25,000: The $25,000 Question: Virgin territory.

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What you see here is as rare as a rock star groupie who’s also a virgin: a Toyota Supra Turbo in original condition. Rarer still: a Toyota Supra Turbo that’s had multiple owners. Many—most?—of the force-fed Supras from the ’94–98 era have been subjected to the tender mercies of tuners, professional and not-so-professional, who have tweaked up the boost of the sequential twin turbos feeding the car’s 3.0-liter straight-six well beyond the stock max of 11.6 psi, frequently to the threshold of meltdown.

Introduced in 1993 as a 1994 model, the Supra Turbo was rated at 320 horsepower and 315 pound-feet of torque. It was pretty hot stuff for the day, capable of 0 to 60 mph anywhere from 4.6 to 5.2 seconds. But with a base price over $40,000, it was also expensive, and Toyota sold only 8611 fourth-gen Supras before pulling the plug at the end of the 1998 model year.

This 1994 example is owned by Jeremy Feller of Carmel, Indiana. He’s a 33-year-old field clinical engineer for CVRX, a company that produces medical equipment. He bought the car just three weeks before our derby, and it came to GingerMan as acquired, including a mismatched set of all-season tires.

“I haven’t done anything to it,” he said. “Yet.”

Feller found the Supra in Chicago and paid $33,000 for it. He said he researched others, some below our $25,000 target, but popped for the Chicago car because it was in original condition—clean, free of rust and dents, well preserved within, and untouched under the hood. The car had just more than 60,000 miles on the odometer, accumulated by three previous owners in locations ranging from New Jersey to Washington state before Feller brought it home to Indiana.

We couldn’t drive the Supra as hard as some of the other cars, owing to its odd collection of tires—Yokohama A520s front, Pirelli P600s rear, well worn at both ends. Nevertheless, we were impressed with the Toyota’s solidity—no squeaks or rattles—and with its benign ride and handling. Braking was just so-so, limited by the tires and stock pads, which began to stink and fade after just a couple of laps. And a reluctant upshift to sixth gear marred an otherwise snick-snick transmission.

But the turbos asserted themselves decisively above 4000 rpm, yielding a gratifying rush, though there were a couple of testers who expected a little more punch.

This last reaction may be due in part to experiences with Supras boosted to double stock output.

Feller, a Ford man who also owns a 1969 Boss 429 Mustang, a ’68 Shelby GT350 convertible, and a 1970 429 Cobra Jet Torino, plans to make the Supra his daily driver and intends to make increased power one of his first priorities.

“Nothing radical,” he said. “Not like all those guys who go for 1000 horsepower.

“I’d just like to get about 400 horsepower, which is very easy to do in these cars. Uh, 400 at the rear wheels, that is.” —Tony Swan